Holocaust survivors, veterans gather at DC museum WASHINGTON (AP) — Elderly survivors of the Holocaust and the veterans who helped liberate them are gathering for what could be their last big reunion at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Some 1,000 survivors and World War II vets are coming together with President Bill Clinton and Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust activist and writer, on Monday when the museum marks its 20th anniversary. Organizers chose not to wait for the 25th milestone because man...

Lottery hopes to boost revenue, profit marginLITTLE ROCK (AP) — A bill that would have required the Arkansas lottery to turn at least a 25 percent annual profit didn’t make it out of committee this year, but the lottery director said Monday he expects similar bills to be proposed in future legislative sessions. “We were very fortunate to get that bill defeated,” lottery Director Bishop Woosley said. Woosley spoke to the Arkansas Lottery Commission, which met Monday in Little Rock. The lo...

Teachers retire after 70 years of combined experienceGlenda Knost and Anne Harelson began teaching at Sequoyah Elementary at about the same time more than 35 years ago. And although their careers have taken vastly different trajectories, they will also end their careers at the same time, choosing to retire at the end of this school year. Sequoyah will hold a reception for the two at the school library at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday remembering the two teachers who have influenced thousands of lives i...

Arrest made in Atkins High School bomb threatATKINS — The Pope County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) arrested an Atkins High School student late Tuesday afternoon who Sheriff Aaron DuVall said was involved with a bomb threat made that morning at Atkins High School. The arrest was made at about 5 p.m. in connection with the bomb threat that occurred Tuesday morning and caused the evacuation of Atkins High School students and staff before classes began for the day. "A white juvenile male student ...

$8 million awarded to 3 school districtsThree Arkansas River Valley school districts will receive state funds for construction projects at their facilities. On Wednesday, the Commission for Arkansas Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation approved more than $130 million to fund more than 100 projects at schools statewide, and $8 million of those funds were allocated for schools in Pope and Yell counties. Dover, Danville and Dardanelle all received funding from the state...

Therapy dogs help Montana students with test stress BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — At Montana State University, final exams stress is going to the dogs. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported Intermountain Therapy Animals is bringing dogs to campus this week and next to help students take a break from the stress of studying for and taking semester exams. Jacqueline Frank is the Renne Library commons assistant who started the “Paws to de-Stress” program this semester. She said research shows that animals c...

Arkansas Tech Opera Workshop performs Sunday nightThe Arkansas Tech University Opera Workshop will offer a performance entitled “An Evening of Opera Choruses” at Witherspoon Auditorium on Sunday. The show will begin at 7:30 p.m. Admission will be free and open to the public. “The program will consist of scenes taken from famous operas and operettas that utilize the opera chorus,” said Dr. Jon F. Clements, director of the Arkansas Tech Opera Workshop and assistant professor of music. “Selectio...

Cyclone Theatre to put on ‘Beauty and the Beast’ in MayThe Russellville High School Cyclone Theatre will perform Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” three times in early May at the Russellville Center for the Arts The performances will take place on at 7 p.m. May 2 and 4 and at 2 p.m. on May 5. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children, and will become available an hour and a half prior to the showing. “Beauty and the Beast,” originally a 1991 film based on the fairy tale by Jeanne M...

Chandler, Binz, Mann named school principalsIn addition to Sheila Jacobs’ appointment as RHS principal, the Russellville School District named principals at three other schools during its monthly meeting Monday night. The district hired Tami Chandler, Laura Binz and Gina Mann to principal positions at three elementary schools in the district. “We are so fortunate in our district to have three qualified people like this available to take these positions,” superintendent Randall Williams ...

30 years after report, schools remain at risk WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. students are falling behind their international rivals. Young people aren’t adept at new technology. America’s economy will suffer if schools don’t step up their game. “A Nation at Risk,” the report issued 30 years ago this week by President Ronald Reagan’s Education Department, was meant as a wake-up call for the country. It spelled out where the United States was coming up short in education and what steps could be tak...

RHS hires Sheila Jacobs permanentlyThe Russellville School District hired Sheila Jacobs as the new principal of Russellville High School during Monday night’s school board meeting. Jacobs will find the position a familiar one — she’s has been the interim principal since early March after former principal Sammy Ussery resigned due to health issues. She had also worked as the school’s assistant principal in the two months leading up to her hiring as interim principal. “Being name...

Arkansas Tech establishes LEAD 21, a leadership programKindergarten-12 schools in central and eastern Arkansas will soon have enhanced leadership capacity because of a new program offered through Arkansas Tech University. LEAD 21 is a new initiative by the Arkansas Tech Center for Leadership and Learning that will make the Arkansas Tech Master of Education degree in educational leadership available to selected teachers in Pulaski County and the Delta region of Arkansas through a blended format of ...

ATU celebrates seventh Enactus region titleWith seven region championships since 2003, the Enactus student organization at Arkansas Tech University has done its best to fill the College of Business trophy case at Rothwell Hall. The latest Enactus region championship trophy was brought home to Russellville by Arkansas Tech students following competition at Dallas, Texas, on April 10. It was the fifth such award that Tech students have captured in the last six years. The region title was...

Kicking butts for Earth Day 2013 in DoverDOVER — On Friday, while at Dover Elementary for an assembly, Pope County Judge Jim Ed Gibson proclaimed Monday as Kick Butts Day in Pope County in an effort to include cigarette litter and pollution control as part of this year’s Earth Day initiative in the Arkansas River Valley. Gibson read the proclamation after Dover third-graders presented a 20-minute presentation about the dangers and of second-hand smoke and cigarette butt litter during...

Parks could become smoke free in DoverTo smoke or not to smoke in Dover City Park? That is the question of the moment that Dover Elementary School third-graders hoped they answered during a 20-minute presentation on Friday regarding the smoke-free parks initiative. The students became part of a local, state and national campaign promoting smoke-free areas — particularly areas where children are present — when they joined the letter-writing campaign to their community leaders in la...

Pottsville High School’s ‘Prom Scare’ deters accidentsPOTTSVILLE — The scene was gruesome, a brown truck wrecked head-on with a white car. A body lay on the ground in front of the vehicle covered in blood. The driver of the brown truck, who was driving drunk, sat dazed in his seat, and occupants of either vehicle lay trapped in the vehicles as police, ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the accident. The scene might’ve been real, had it not taken place on the asphalt behind the high school in fr...

Prom nightmareHector High School held their annual "Prom Nightmare" event Friday morning with this year being a funeral scenario for one of their fellow classmates, Lauryn Danielle Tereza, who died in a car crash from a drunk driver. The event, put on by Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) and co-sponsored by Jerri Tabor and Beth Lake, went through the events beginning with the crash, the funeral and then hearing from students who now have to grad...

Greeks feed elementary studentsSome of them were gathered around tables or sat on the floor, filling bags and cardboard boxes with food. Others were carrying armload after armload of food from their cars into Tucker Coliseum. Still more were organizing the 22,000 donated food items so that they could be delivered to the correct elementary school. Regardless of which Greek organization they are from, students from Arkansas Tech University fraternities and sororities had a co...

ATU to recognize Century Forward CircleArkansas Tech University will host a public recognition of its Century Forward Circle donors and unveil an addition to Centennial Plaza in their honor during an on-campus event on Saturday. The ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday on Centennial Plaza, which is located just west of Thone Stadium at Buerkle Field. The public is invited to attend. Centennial Plaza is the location of a new set of benches and pavers that were created as a pe...

Innovative technologies increase for local schoolsThe Common Core State Standards introduced last year placed an emphasis on technology in curriculums for public schools across the country. Dardanelle elementary and middle schools have found more than just an instructional opportunity with technology— they’ve found a way to increase both collaborative efforts between students and the efficiency of research done both at school and at home. “We try to take the new Common Core State Standards, a...